God’s Looking for a Gap Girl - Girlfriends in God - January 13, 2014

I looked for a man among them who would build up the wall and stand before me in the gap on behalf of the land so I would not have to destroy it, but I found none (Ezekiel 22:30). What if we viewed prayer as our first course of action rather than a

God said, ‘I looked for a man among them who would build up the wall and stand before me in the gap on behalf of the land so I would not have to destroy it, but I found none,’(Ezekiel 22:30, NIV).

Friend to Friend

“Well, I guess the only thing left to do is pray about it.”

How many times have I heard those words? How many times have they slipped past my lips? But what if we looked at prayer from a different perspective… God’s perspective? What if we viewed prayer as our first course of action rather than a last resort?

The vast majority of the e-mails I receive through my ministry center around marriage problems. Women struggle with husbands who aren’t living up to their expectations: men who work too much and love too little, men who withdraw emotionally and advance sexually, men who initially appear to be Prince Charming but later reveal the villain within.

The second most common request is in regard to children—both school-age children, and adult children out on their own. Listen, I get that. Been there. Still there on many days.

Regardless of where your marriage, your children, or your family fall on the continuum of terrific to tolerable to terrible, there is always room for improvement. Prayer can make a bad situation good and a good situation great.

One thing we have to remember: Prayer is not a means of gainingcontrol over your husband, to whip him into shape and make him the man you want him to be. Prayer is a means ofrelinquishingcontrol of your husband and asking God to shape him into the man that He wants him to be. Prayer involves turning the finger that points out your man’s faults and folding it along with the others in prayer.

Prayer is not a not a means of getting your children to be exactly what you want them to be, but for them to be exactly what God wants them to be.

Prayer is not a means to gain control over any situation in your life, but to relinquish control so that God can do what God needs to do.

The Bible tells us in Isaiah 29:16, “You turn things upside down, as if the potter were thought to be like the clay! Shall what is formed say to him who formed it, ‘He did not make me?’ Can the pot say of the potter, ‘He knows nothing’?”

God is the Master Potter, and He certainly doesn’t need you or me to tell Him how to shape and mold the people that we are praying for. Oh, we’d like to. That’s for sure.

But God’s ultimate goal is for each lump of clay to be fashioned according to His design and for His purposes, not ours. “We are the clay, you are the potter,” Isaiah writes, “we are all the work of your hand” (Isaiah 64:8). I am. You are. Whoever you are praying for today is.

God shapes and molds. You pray and intercede.

James warns about the danger of praying with wrong motives (James 4:3). Check your desire to control at the door of the prayer closet and don’t let it in.

God is not hoarding His blessings, waiting for us to say the right words to pry those blessings out of His stingy hand. He longs to lavish us with His goodness! (Ephesians 1:7-8) And yet He often waits for us to ask. I am not saying I understand it. Prayer is simply how He chose to engineer the flow of His power and activity from the spiritual realm into the physical realm. Prayer is the conduit through which God’s power is released and His will is brought to earth as it is in heaven.

It is not that God cannot act without the prayers of His people. He can do anything He pleases (Psalm 115:3). However, He has established prayer as the gate through which His blessings flow. James reminds us: “You do not have, because you do not ask” (James 4:2).

Ezekiel gives us a glimpse into the heart of God regarding prayer. Israel had sinned in every possible way, and her people were doomed for destruction. God said, “I looked for a man among them who would build up the wall and stand before me in the gap on behalf of the land so I would not have to destroy it, but I found none” (Ezekiel 22:30). God looked for someone to pray, to intercede, to stand in the gap for Israel, but there was no one.

Today God is looking for wives who will stand in the gap for their husbands, moms who will stand in the gap for their children, and women who will stand in the gap for their friends. I’m so glad He has found such a woman in you.

If you’re standing in the gap for someone today, click over to my Facebook pageand say, “I’m a Gap Girl!”

Let’s Pray

Dear Lord, today I stand in the gap for __________. I pray for _________’s mind, that You would keep wrong thinking out and usher truthful thinking in. I pray for ________’s eyes, that he/she would turn his/her eyes toward what is good, and away from what is evil. I pray for _______’s ears, that he/she will listen to words and music that glorifies You, and turn his/her ears away from words and music that would do his/her soul harm.

In Jesus’ Name,

Amen.

Now It’s Your Turn

Has God called you to stand in the gap for someone today?

Here are the sixteen landmarks of prayer that I cover in Praying for Your Husband from Head to Toe. You can use these same landmarks to pray for anyone.

His mind: What he thinks about

His eyes: What he looks at

His ears: What he listens to

His mouth: The words he speaks

His neck: His decisions that turn his head

His shoulders: His burdens and worries

His heart: Who and What he loves

His back: His protection

His arms: His strength

His hands: His work

His ring finger: His marriage

His side: His relationships

His sexuality: His need for physical intimacy

His legs: His stand for the truth

His knees: His relationship with God

His feet: His walk

More from the Girlfriends

I am so excited about my latest book that is hot off the press: Praying for Your Husband from Head to Toe: A Daily Guide to Scripture-Based Prayer. In it I map out sixteen landmarks to help wives consistently and effectively cover their husbands in prayer from his mind and the thoughts he thinks, to his eyes and the images he sees, all the way down to his feet and the path he takes. The 30-day prayer guide shows women how to pray in ways that are powerful, practical, and life changing. Not married? This book is a great resource to use to pray for any man in your life…including adult sons, nephews, and that special someone.

Join me and women all around the world in a 30-Day Prayer Dare. Click here to learn more.

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